Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize 2023
Prize for Creative Effort
Essay Topic: How might Gandhi have responded to the way elections are conducted today, looking at one or more of the following: (1) election financing; (2) campaign rhetoric; or (3) the election commission.
The Rhyme and Rhetoric of Election
by
Ashaz Daud
DPS Varanasi
‘My daughter has turned eighteen! We think it’s time for her byaah,’ I heard Saroj Devi crooning to the other maids about getting her child married. She is a sweeper in our school. Her daughter, Muskan, has been endowed with the privilege of education, unlike her, who got
enshrouded behind the crimson veil the very day she turned fourteen.
When she said it for the umpteenth time, I interrupted, ‘But Saroj didi, is marriage the only thing that comes to your mind? Does your daughter have a ration card? How about you get her a Voter ID?’
She thought pensively for a minute, her thoughts punctuated by the occasional grunts of a woman who trounces the hardships of penury to achieve banal propensity.
‘Why should she vote? We have a ration card and by Mata’s grace we are able to afford two meals a day! There is nothing else that we need.’
‘But Saroj didi voting will give you and your daughter the power to decide who will make and shape the policies for the coming years. It will validate your hardships. And will give you an identity.’
Saroj Devi was solemn. The creases on her face intensified grotesquely with every thought that crossed her mind. After a while she said, ‘Babu, if we were so concerned about having an identity, then why would we be working as maids? If we were so concerned about having an identity, then why did we choose to submit to our husbands, who can’t even afford to give us the respect we want? It is because what matters to us more is the day’s meal. A bowl of rice is more important to us than our identity.’
I stood there, dumbstruck. Befuddled and downtrodden.
*
Identity.
What is identity? What gives you an identity?
‘We all are just people living our own lives, with different purposes and various hobbies, with conflicting problems and disparate struggles. The day one decides to vote is the day one gets the identity of his own; that is the day one becomes a citizen. The Citizen who holds power and responsibility,’ says Arvind Anjum, an active member of The Akhil Bharatiya Sarva Seva Sangh, Varanasi.
Gandhiji, as he says in his book The Voice of Truth, was wedded to the idea of adult suffrage, for more reasons than one, but the most decisive reason was that it enabled him to satisfy the reasonable aspirations of the common man, not only of the Musalmans, but also of the so-called Harijans, of Christians, of labourers, and of all kinds of classes.
Established in 1948 with the ambition to propagate Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophies and ideologies, the Sarva Seva Sangh is a confraternity that actively organises public protests and demonstrations. It is segregated into various columns or Mandals that tend to different issues. When I asked him if education should be a necessary criteria to contest for elections, Ram Dhiraj, the President of Uttar Pradesh Sahodaya Mandal, said, ‘Education does not define a person’s moral fibre. His resilience does. But the literate man has a profound knowledge of the Constitution and intricacies of the political world. I believe that our lawmakers should have a certain extent of literacy in order to have a better understanding of the society, the government and its modus operandi.’
Ram Dhiraj left his university to join forces with Jayaprakash Narayan and Mahatma Gandhi in their revolutionary ‘Kranti Andolan’. An indelible escapade of endurance and persistence, he recalled his experiences before and after the struggle, which included the time he spent in jail during The Emergency. The Mahatma and Jayaprakash Narayan strenuously articulated their desire for a democratic India during the struggle, with Gandhiji urging the voters to shape their thoughts according to a candidate’s character and not to associate themselves with any party and its quarrels. But are today’s elections aligned with his forethoughts?
‘If politics is a vehicle, then religion gives its speed,’ said Arvind Anjum, the Gandhian philosopher, as he rendered his discontent over the gravity and influence of religion during elections. Gandhiji, who was irrefutably vehement about elections and voting rights, believed that a candidate’s relations with the Electors are more significant than the candidate’s qualifications and religion, that the candidate’s personality should weigh more than his education, as quoted in Volume V of The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. He further expressed his concerns about the rights of the Voter, saying that he is not enamoured by “The Doctrine of Literacy”, and that every man deserves to vote, irrespective of his wealth and literacy, and that a man who works with the virtues of honesty and righteousness by the
sweat of his brow day in and day out should not be deprived of the right to vote simply for the crime of being a poor man.
*
We had a school trip to a village famous for its pottery and wooden toys. It also happened to be the village where Saroj Devi and Muskan lived. We were told to be careful about not wandering off to areas far from the parking lot where our buses were parked. I was overwhelmed with the plenitude of handmade potteries I came across during our excursion. I wondered if the government did something to promote the artistry of the villagers. That is when I saw a bunch of villagers gathering under a massive banyan tree in front of a turban-clad man delivering his soliloquy.
‘My fellow villagers, if you give me your vote, I will ensure that all the handicrafts and exotic materials that you produce finds its way to bigger markets and flourishes. Moreover, I will give all women the opportunity to earn better than they have been earning till now by creating new job opportunities for them. I will make sure that a woman who is willing to,
is able to work for longer hours of the day, without the fear of a man stealing her izzat when she is on her way home in the evening.’
His speech was followed by a clamorous round of applause from the villagers.
I returned home with quite a few handmade pottery items that day. Moreover, I returned with a sense of altruism and joy so unparalleled that it could not be expressed.
*
In October 2023, I read a news article that emphasised the issue of payment of salaries to government employees across the states of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. The dire consequences plunged me into a cascade of thoughts and made me ponder over the provision of state funding of elections, if the government should provide financial support to political parties and candidates to facilitate the electoral process.
Amar Nath Bhai, a devoted follower of the Mahatma and yet another member of the Sangh proclaimed that ‘The government has formulated a federal system that must be adhered to with earnestness, for it gives accountability to the State.’ I further questioned him about the regulations that the Election Commission has imposed over the conduction of elections, if he believes that the government influences it and how Mahatma Gandhi would have reacted to its praxis and course of action.
He scoffed, saying that his words would in no way be tantamount to Gandhiji’s resentment if he were alive, that the election commission has always, and will continue to be, influenced by the government. Gandhi’s vision would likely align with the idea of maintaining the integrity and fairness of the electoral process by ensuring the autonomy of the election commission.
While the Election Commission was founded to promote transparency and enforce accountability, its functioning remains veiled with secrecy.
My mind remains a whirlwind of questions without answers and problems without solutions. While every leader must possess a certain degree of knowledge, the paramount quality of a leader is wisdom, for all that knowledge without any wisdom would then stagnate and fester.
While our country has unshackled itself from the manacles of slavery, discrimination, poverty and corruption still thrive rampant in every lane of our nation.
Have we truly succeeded in attaining Gandhi’s visions of a democratic nation? Does every Indian enjoy equal rights? Do I possess solutions to every possible conceivable, only to lack the individuals capable of implementing them?
*
I stumbled upon Saroj didi in the corridor while leaving the restroom. Muskan had not been to school since the last few months.
‘Muskan got married to the son of our village’s sarpanch.’ She intimated. The sarpanch of the village was the man whose speech I had heard when I went to their village. He advocated women’s rights and security.
I nodded feigning indifference. ‘How is she? Is she happy?’
‘Um. I don’t think,’ she paused, ‘I don’t think we can say that babu.’
‘Why?’ I asked.
‘He-he beats her,’ her voice broke, ‘And he wouldn’t allow her to continue her studies.’ She gathered herself and sighed. ‘Well that’s how it is with women.’
‘How was her wedding?’ I asked.
‘It went fairly well. We couldn’t afford to buy a new saree for her. She had to compromise with a white saree.’
She then scuttled away as a child spilled water on the floor to clean it.
I stood there staring into nothingness.
Not every woman wears white on their byaah.
*
References
“Congress Governments in 3 States Battling Crises Due to ‘Flawed Thinking’, Lack Funds for Salaries: Rajnath.” Deccan Herald, 30 Oct. 2023,
https://www.deccanherald.com/elections/india/congress-governments-in-3-states-
battling-crises-due-to-flawed-thinking-lack-funds-for-salaries-rajnath-2747452.
“---.” Deccan Herald, 30 Oct. 2023,
https://www.deccanherald.com/elections/india/congress-governments-in-3-states-
battling-crises-due-to-flawed-thinking-lack-funds-for-salaries-rajnath-2747452.
“Franchise and Voters | The Voice of Truth | The Selected Works of Mahatma
Gandhi.”
MAHATMA GANDHI ONE SPOT COMPLETE INFORMATION
WEBSITE,
https://www.mkgandhi.org/voiceoftruth/franchiseandvoters.htm.
Accessed 20 Jan. 2024.
InsightsIAS. “State Funding of Election in India - INSIGHTSIAS.” INSIGHTSIAS,
https://www.facebook.com/insightsonindia, 18 Nov. 2023,
https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/11/18/state-funding-of-election-in-india/.
“What Kind of Political Candidates Did Gandhi Hope Voters Would Support? |
NewsClick.” NewsClick, https://www.newsclick.in/what-kind-political-candidates-
gandhi-hope-voters-support. Accessed 20 Jan. 2024.
Awarded by the Literary Journal, Out of Print.
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